


Fireflies

by Lobster



Series: A Year of Haymitch and Effie Drabbles [2]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Children of Characters, F/M, Family Fluff, Ficlet, POV Female Character, Parenthood, Toddlers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-03 20:46:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17884937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lobster/pseuds/Lobster
Summary: Fifty-two weeks, fifty-two prompts, fifty-two drabbles; this work is part of a series of Haymitch/Effie drabbles inspired by one-word prompts. This week's prompt: fireflies.Haymitch and Effie and their daughter spend a warm summer evening catching fireflies.





	Fireflies

Humid summer nights were something Effie had come to love about living in District 12. The air in her mountains had never hung so close, but in these low, old mountains, sometimes the air would wrap you like a blanket, slip deep into your lungs. On bad days it weighed Effie down, suffocated her, but there weren’t so many bad days anymore.

Now that their daughter was getting older, they were finding new ways to appreciate summer nights together. Tonight, Haymitch held her little hand, walked her down the steps into the warm night air just as the sun set and the night noises began. Lily looked around in excitement and amazement, knowing this was a special occasion, the night where she was allowed to stay up as late as she wanted. The fireflies twinkled all around her, flashing on and off in their beautiful mating dance. The joy of her daughter seeing this all for the first time transformed the scene into something magical.

“You see these bugs, Lily?” Haymitch said, squatting beside the little girl. “They’re called fireflies, or sometimes lightning bugs. You see the way they flash on and off like that?”

“Uh-huh. Pretty.” Lily stuck her finger in her mouth and Effie knew her daughter’s favorite word was about to appear. “Why?”

“They’re looking for a friend. Only one other firefly flashes at the exact same time as any other, and those two fireflies are best friends, like you and Aster.”

Lily nodded solemnly at this explanation, then giggled as one blinked on next to her face, going crossed-eyed as she tried to focus on it.

“Do you want to try to catch one, dear?” Effie asked her daughter, kneeling beside her. Lily’s eyes opened wide and she nodded vigorously.

Effie produced a mason jar she had stolen from the kids’ kitchen, where Peeta and Katniss were already starting this year’s canning. They'd poked several holes in the lid; the top was secured to the brim with glue. Everything was ready to go.

A firefly flew close and Effie deftly snapped it up in the jar. Lily watched with big eyes. Effie handed her the jar and Lily examined the tiny bug inside closely as it crawled up and down the glass, its back end lighting up and darkening. Effie was amazed at how intently she could study a thing. She was going to be as smart as her father.

Finally she looked up. “My turn now?”

“Sure, darling,” Effie said. She unscrewed the lid loosely but didn’t take the top off.

“The trick,” Haymitch said, taking over, “is that you have to keep the lid on as much as possible so the ones inside don’t fly away once you’ve caught them. Understand?”

“Uh-huh,” Lily said, and she took the jar from Effie. Immediately she took the lid off and Effie reached over but a look from Haymitch stayed her hand. The firefly that was inside the jar took the opportunity to escape.

Lily stood between them, making reaching motions towards fireflies that came toward her, spinning around as individual ones blinked on and caught her attention. Her motions with the jar were erratic and Effie desperately wanted to help her, to show her the right way to do it, but Haymitch was still giving her that look, that don’t-mess-with-the-kid look. That she’s-doing-fine look that Effie always found so hard to believe. Effie gave him her own look back, a how-can-you-be-so-sure look. A don’t-be-such-a-know-it-all look. Haymitch rolled his eyes at her and she smiled.

“Why don’t you try running after them a bit, hon?” Haymitch asked their daughter.

Lily began to take a few tentative steps towards the flashing bugs, then more assertive ones. Her random swipes became more directed until, finally, more by chance than skill, a bug ended up in the jar.

“I catched one! I catched one!” she shouted excitedly. “Mommy! Daddy! See, see!”

“I see, we see!” Effie enthused as Haymitch said, “Good job, hon!” They both clapped and Lily beamed.

“Do you want to catch any more?” Effie asked her daughter. Lily nodded. The process began again. Again, the firefly slipped away, again, the random movements, becoming more skilled, again the chance capture. They clapped for her once more and she smiled wide, then yawned.

“I have an idea, sweetie,” Effie said, pulling Lily into her lap where she knelt on the grass. “Why don’t we watch Daddy catch fireflies for a bit?”

Haymitch groaned quietly. They were not young parents. Just chasing Lily around was nearly too much for them some days. But he stood and took the mason jar.

”Great idea, princess,” he said, laying a kiss on the top of each of their heads. “Princesses.” Lily giggled, but settled into Effie’s lap, letting her know how tired her daughter actually was.

Haymitch, of course, was much better at catching fireflies than a toddler. In a few minutes he had a jar full of the twinkling bugs and he came back to rejoin his girls.

“Time to go inside?” he asked

“I think so,” she answered, standing up, holding Lily, who was starting to doze. “Come on, baby, we’re going inside, OK?”

“Mmmkay,” came the sleepy reply.

Once upstairs they got an almost asleep Lily dressed in her pajamas and tucked into bed. Haymitch placed the mason jar full of fireflies on her nightstand and leaned down to kiss her goodnight. Effie did the same. Lily woke up for just a second, eyes fixed on the jar, smiling. Then she glanced at her parents.

“Love you.” She fell back asleep.

“Love you too, baby,” Effie whispered.

**Author's Note:**

> This one kind of got away from me - it's a bit longer than a drabble. But we all love Haymitch and Effie as parents, right? So cute!


End file.
